Unicus
by epiphanies
Summary: "Boys," said a deep voice, belonging to a squat man who appeared beside the short girl, "Are you going to come down and meet your Uncle Roger and Cousin Unicus?"


Unicus

  
  


By Emma

  
  
  
  


"I CAN'T STAND HAVING YOU HERE! WHY ARE YOU STILL LIVING HERE, YOU'RE SIXTEEN! MUM, TELL HIM TO GET OUT-"

"The-the neighbours will talk if he leaves, Duddykins-"

"LET THEM TALK, I DON'T WANT HIM FLASHING THAT BLOODY STICK AT ME-"

"Riiiiiing."

The three people in the floral-papered hallway of Number Four, Privet Drive froze.

"Shut it for a moment, both of you," hissed Harry Potter's Aunt Petunia, and her son gave a great whine.

"Who could be calling now? We're not expecting anybody! Both of you, upstairs!" she ushered them up the stairs and primped her hair for a moment before opening the door to the humid outdoors.

Harry could hear voices coming from behind the wall - he and Dudley were furiously but silently wrestling over who could see past the banister and who had to stand back.

"...its so sudden, its been so long..." Aunt Petunia's high, shrill voice that she got when surprise visitors gave her no warning as to clean her house before they arrived, arrived.

Harry squinted. He could see two shadows beyond Aunt Petunia's....one male, one possibly female and considerably shorter-

"Sod off, Potter!" Dudley finally snorted as his nose was forced into the fluffy cream coloured carpet as Harry leaned in.

Dudley pushed him over.

They both froze. Again.

A girl...short in height, with long, spiralling, golden-red hair and sparkling grey eyes had appeared near the door.

Harry could feel his cousin's intake of breath. He nudged him in the ribs - hard.

The girl looked around her a bit, then turned back to the doorway, which Aunt Petunia or the man must have just shut, "You have a beautiful home."

"Why, thank you dear. You didn't call, its such a mess-"

"Don't be ridiculous," the girl's lips turned up at the corners, "Its lovely."

Her glance moved swiftly around her, taking in every wall, every trinket - until her eyes fell on Harry and Dudley, staring at her, laying atop each other on the landing between the floors of their home.

Harry was on top, so he scrambled to his feet first and could feel his neck burning with embarrassment.

"Why...hello." the girl smiled up at him, looking at him straight in the eye.

Dudley stood up in front of Harry and said "Hello!"

Harry narrowed his eyes and poked his cousin in the spine.

"Ow! Mum-" Dudley began, then decided, for *some* reason, to shut up. Harry smirked as he saw the girl try to suppress a laugh.

"Boys," said a deep voice, belonging to a squat man who appeared beside the short girl moments later, "Are you going to come down and meet your Uncle Roger and Cousin Unicus?"

Dudley's jaw dropped and he looked at his mother hopelessly, mouthing "Cousin?"

"Sure," Harry said easily, and lightly padded down the stairs. He reached the bottom and outreached his hand to the man.

"Harry Potter."

The man's eyebrows raised, "We finally meet. Vernon mentioned you a few years ago...I wasn't sure you were still around!"

There was something about the man that Harry immediately took a liking to.

"And this," said Roger, "Is my daughter Unicus. No need to call her cousin, Harry, she's not really your cousin as much as Dudley's here."

By this time, Dudley had pounded down the stairs and pushed Harry out of the way before Harry had a chance to even smile at Unicus.

As the four Dursleys talked in the foyer, Harry shuffled back towards the stairway.

Until Unicus called after him, "Harry? Could you perhaps, show me the washroom? If you're going upstairs already?"

Harry's stomach clenched, and a blush crept up his neck.

*Get ahold of yourself, you're not RON!*

"Sure," he said, surprised at how easygoing he sounded, seeing as though he felt so nervous he could swear the ground was shaking from the pounding of his heart, "Come right up."

Unicus followed him and when they reached the second floor, Harry pointed her to the washroom. She smiled before she went in. He heard a click.

Harry sighed to himself. What was he doing? He should still be thinking about Sirius, and the letters that he had been trying to send to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place when Dudley had stormed into his room, accusing him of something that he certainly didn't recall doing.

All summer long, Dudley had been trying to test his mother, to see whether she would break under his constant and irritating whining about how much roomier the house would be without a certain skinny, black haired boy occupying the room next to Dudley's.

It hadn't worked thus far.

Unfortunately.

Harry, momentarily forgetting about the pretty girl in his bathroom, wandered into his room and picked up the letter that he'd just been about to send. He let Hedwig out of her cage, and grabbed a piece of twine-

"Pretty owl you have there."

Harry dropped the twine, and it fluttered to the ground.

Unicus was smirking at him, in a way that scarily reminded him of Draco Malfoy.

"I...uh..."

"Who are you writing to?" Unicus raised an interested eyebrow, "A friend? A girlfriend, maybe?"

Harry backed up, completely confused and horrified that he'd allowed himself to be caught.

Unicus looked at him, slightly amused, "What? I'm not going to attack you Harry, I was just curious. You don't *have* to tell me who you're writing to."

Harry blinked.

"How...." he began, suddenly feeling as if the entire world really *did* know about the wizarding community, and that the entire secrecy thing had been a gag up until this point.

Unicus smiled, "I go to Durmstrang."

WHAT?

"You...you said that you're...but...Dursley-"

"Yeah, I'm a Dursley, by name," she shrugged, "but I was adopted. And my parents both found out, as well as I, what I was when I was eleven...and they accepted it. My parents, Harry....way more easy going than Vernon and Petunia, so I hear."

"How...I still don't understand, why haven't you been around before?"

"I was raised in Scotland with the Dursleys," she sat down on his bed, still watching him relax, "And then I was accepted to Durmstrang. Vernon and my mum never really got along, he called her a hippie. Thats why my Dad and I are here alone."

"Did you know...about me?"

"Of course!" she exclaimed, "Who doesn't know about the famous Harry Potter? I learned about you at school, and when I wrote home, telling my Dad all about what I'd heard - its an incredible story - he wrote back saying that he'd thought the name was familiar, and that he'd asked Vernon about it, without saying where he'd heard it, because he knew Vernon wouldn't understand....and then he told me about it. Its kind of funny, then I told people that by line, I was related to Harry Potter. I got really famous for a couple weeks." she winked.

"So.." said Harry slowly, sliding down the wall and sitting on the floor, looking up at Unicus, "You're my cousin, on my Uncle's side, but you're adopted, and you go to Durmstrang."

Unicus nodded.

Harry sort-of grinned, "Do you know Viktor Krum?"

Unicus' eyes shaded into a stormy grey, "I once did."

"Why so ominous?" Harry wondered.

"Because," Unicus, looked out the window for the first time, then reached over to pet Hedwig, "He's a sod. He told my friend Melinda from Belgium that he'd never felt that way about another girl before, right after he told me that exact same thing. Then, about two weeks ago, before I knew about this, he asked me to stay with him this summer. I told him no, but then changed my mind and decided to surprise him - I arrived at his house to find him snogging a totally different girl out on his enormous front lawn..."

Harry's fist clenched, "Did she have long, sort of bushy brown hair?"

Unicus' eyes widened, "Yeah, and she was British. I think her name was Helen or something. You know her?"

"Yeah." Harry said grimly, "I'm going to have to owl her..."

"Well, she's probably just about as hurt as I am, the two of us got in a mad row with him and stalked off together, ranting about men. No offence."

Harry shook his head, "Ron'll kill him."

"Her boyfriend?"

He shook his head, feeling it too complicated to get into, "Nah, just another friend."

"Oh," Unicus said, "Well, Viktor doesn't go to Durmstrang anymore anyways, so I don't have to worry about seeing him."

"Unless you watch Quidditch," Harry supplied, and she nodded.

"I don't watch, I just play."

"Really? You too?"

"Yeah, of course. I think it runs in my blood, personally. What about you, do you play?"

"Yeah, I'm Seeker for Gryffindor."

"Really? Wow, thats incredible. I'm only a beater."

"Thats a hard job too though."

"Sure is...I don't have the eyesight for little golden balls, I'm afraid."

Harry grinned and pointed at his glasses, "Nor do I."

Unicus laughed.


End file.
